BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ALFONSO X THE WISE CHAIR

The Alfonso X the Wise Chair, based in the Castle of San Marcos (El Puerto de Santa María, Cadiz), which enjoys the patronage of the firm Luis Caballero, S.A., the owner of this historic monument, was constituted on December 16, 1998 on the occasion of the Closure of the 1st Week of Alfonsine Studies.

The founding purpose of this Chair was to foster the study and dissemination of the personality, times and work of Alfonso X the Wise (1221-1284), the most universal of the medieval Hispanic kings.

This justification was reinforced by a series of circumstances closely linked to El Puerto de Santa María, such as the fact that the town was conquered, repopulated and organised by the Wise king, culminating in the granting to the town on December 16, 1281 of a charter which can be considered the town’s founding text. A further consideration is the fact that the castle of San Marcos, which houses the old mosque transformed into a church by the Castilian monarch, is the seat of the Alfonso X Chair, having been since its constitution in 1998 the home of the activities of the Chair, and particularly of the holding every two years of a Week of Alfonsine Studies.

The Alfonso X the Wise Chair began to see the light at the initiative of Mr. Luis Caballero Florido, the Chairman of the Caballero Group and the driving force behind the Chair until his death in March 2013.

To date, eleven Weeks of Alfonsine Studies have been held, with the participation of an eminent group of historians, many of them department heads of national and foreign universities. The Minutes of the speeches given are published every two years, with eleven volumes having already been produced. To this regular publication others are added, all related with the figure and works of Alfonso X the Wise. In an annex we list the publications which have appeared to date.

Today the “Alfonso X” Chair has attained great prestige both in university circles and among devotees of the history of the 13th century, and especially among scholars of the reign of a monarch whose works embrace aspects as varied as politics, literature, law, art, music, poetry and the Galician and Castilian languages.

On January 31, 2003 the Chair was constituted as the “Alfonso X the Wise Chair” Association, as an organisation of an associative and non-profit nature, under Article 22 of the Spanish Constitution and Organic Act nº 1/2002 of March 22 regulating Association Law, being passed as such by the decision of the Ministry of the Interior on Associations, being included in the Register of Associations with national number 170394 in Section 1 on April 14, 2003.